How does 'sold out' appear on shore ex?

[Moby_Spout]

In the race for capturing shore ex, at what point on the website will you see a particular tour is sold out?

 

For example, is 'sold out' displayed on a day's main list (photo) of tours, or once you click on 'learn more' to get into the tour details, hours, etc, or??

 

 

[formernuke]

Both

[CDNPolar]

Was looking for this on one of our upcoming tours, but all are still open.

 

There is a Sold Out banner somewhere over the shore excursion tile even before you click.

 

Our experience is to book what you think you want - included or optional - and pay for the optionals immediately.  If you decide you don't want one later, cancel it and you will get a refund to your credit card.

 

Don't play the waiting game. Book sooner rather than be disappointed later.

[kctwinmommy]

Here's an example from our cruise. You can see the Included one (which shows our reservation confirmed for booked). Then there's one that's still open in the middle. And the one on the right shows Sold Out.

[Moby_Spout]

Thank you! All this info will save me wasting clicks out of the starting gate.

 

Also useful to have the strategies of book/cancel later and retry. Makes sense if others are book/cancel later there will be new openings all the time.

[CCWineLover]

53 minutes ago, kctwinmommy said:

Here's an example from our cruise. You can see the Included one (which shows our reservation confirmed for booked). Then there's one that's still open in the middle. And the one on the right shows Sold Out.

Ha!

Your example above reminded me again about the inconsistency in Viking tours guides that they hire - particularly for included.  My point is a tip to share with people.

We recently took the Panoramic Corfu & Old Town Walking tour in Corfu.  There were probably about 8 groups that went out at the same time in the morning.  Bus portion was first.  We stopped at a great lookout point with a large large deck area (enough to accomodate nearly all the groups.  Our guide took us to the deck, said a couple words and told us to meet back at the bus in 45 minutes.  We were on our own.  I noticed the other guides all talking quite a bit to their groups.  (ie. the guides don't always do the same thing).  TIP:  I used the quietvox and starting tuning into the number of the guide's lolypop and wound up getting to hear so much interesting stuff!  Went from one to the other in fact.  

Then the walking portion, after a stop outside the "palace", our guide pointed us to Old Town and said you can walk throughout Old Town and be back in 45 minutes to the bus.  Again as we wondered in and out of the interesting streets, a little bewildered, we noticed the other groups again with their guides walking through the Old Town.  Again I switched to their channel on the QuietVox and heard so much about the churches, history, etc.

So - if your guide is no good, you can try to at least "tag along" on another channel.

I did report this to the Excursion desk when we returned.

[rjp50]

I was surprised that our "Into the Midnight Sun" cruise for late June that some of the included tours are completely "sold out".  Viking makes a big deal about having included tours in each port, yet anyone booking now will apparently not have included tours available in several ports.  Or, do they routinely add tours so that they can make good on their advertised claims?

Edited April 7 by rjp50

[kctwinmommy]

@CCWineLover - of course! Good point. But yes, some guides are going to be better than others. We are also keeping our options open. If we find other tours to do, we'll switch. Plus, we do like that with our specific cruise, we have long days in the ports. So plenty of time to explore and find other things. I did also get the Rick Steves book to help.

 

@Moby_Spout - I also tagged you in a post I wrote a few weeks ago that explains how we did our excursion selections. We're new to Viking, so it's basically the step by step on what worked for us.

[kctwinmommy]

Just now, rjp50 said:

I was surprised that our "Into the Midnight Sun" cruise for late June that some of the included tours are "sold out".  Viking makes a big deal about having included tours in each port, yet anyone booking now will apparently not have included tours available in several ports.  Or, do they routinely add tours so that they can make good on their advertised claims?

Yes, they will add more, from what everyone has said in the past. Once you get on board, check with guest services. We also had 1 day that the included ones were booked. That's also because the middle day is a on/off day for cruisers (leg 3 of 4), so they can't post the tours for that day online, we have to book on board. But, because we're there for 3 days, we could pick an included on another day. I did learn that we can only pick one included over those 3 days. We'll most likely switch to something else once on board though.

[OneSixtyToOne]

1 hour ago, CCWineLover said:

I noticed the other guides all talking quite a bit to their groups.  (ie. the guides don't always do the same thing).  TIP:  I used the quietvox and starting tuning into the number of the guide's lolypop and wound up getting to hear so much interesting stuff!  Went from one to the other in fact.  

We had a similar experience on a river cruise. We had a terrible guide right from the start. At the first stop at the town’s clock tower we saw another Viking lollipop and switched channels. There was no bus involved so we just joined the other group.

 

 

Edited April 7 by OneSixtyToOne

[CCWineLover]

1 hour ago, rjp50 said:

I was surprised that our "Into the Midnight Sun" cruise for late June that some of the included tours are completely "sold out".  Viking makes a big deal about having included tours in each port, yet anyone booking now will apparently not have included tours available in several ports.  Or, do they routinely add tours so that they can make good on their advertised claims?

Yes - they will ALWAYS provide an included tour to any guest onboard that wishes one.  It may not be at the time you want, but you will get one.  

Viking projects how many will be on a tour and contracts the provider to schedule that many.  If more people want them, they will add more.  You might see them added on MVJ but you might also not see availability until you are onboard.

[LindaS272]

1 hour ago, CCWineLover said:

Yes - they will ALWAYS provide an included tour to any guest onboard that wishes one.  It may not be at the time you want, but you will get one.  

Viking projects how many will be on a tour and contracts the provider to schedule that many.  If more people want them, they will add more.  You might see them added on MVJ but you might also not see availability until you are onboard.

Use the chat function in MVJ and inquire about an included tour you want. You can also email tellus@vikingcruises.com and ask about putting on more included excursion slots. I wouldn’t want to wait until onboard because I’d like to maximize my time for excursions.

[CDNPolar]

4 hours ago, rjp50 said:

I was surprised that our "Into the Midnight Sun" cruise for late June that some of the included tours are completely "sold out".  Viking makes a big deal about having included tours in each port, yet anyone booking now will apparently not have included tours available in several ports.  Or, do they routinely add tours so that they can make good on their advertised claims?

 

We have always gotten the included tour even if it is sold out in advance.  Not to worry.